


Glances

by AnnieVH



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-24 12:09:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13213464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnieVH/pseuds/AnnieVH
Summary: Gideon and Roderick take the same bus, but never really talk to each other.





	Glances

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by leni-ba: -Riding the same bus multiple times. Gideon/Roderick  
> Beta by Maddie.

It's Wednesday and it occurs to Gideon that the guy sitting across from him has taken this bus before. He can tell because he remembers the guitar case – it has a funny sticker that looks like a silver fairy, and it looks like it's floating in the dark leather of the case. Weird how you can remember things like that. The stranger is staring at his cellphone and he doesn't look happy, Gideon wonders why, even though his father has always taught him not to shove his nose into other people's business.

 _Mom would've asked him what's wrong_ , he thinks, and maybe he might have done the same if this were Storybrooke. But he's only been in New York a month now and, frankly, the city is loud and dirty and the people scare him a lot. Neal keeps telling him he should go out and make friends but Gideon doesn't really know how. More often than not, he misses home.

The guitar player gets off ten minutes later.

Gideon thinks, _I wonder where he's playing_ , and goes back to reading his book.

 

It's Friday night and Liam is being a dick, as per usual. He wanted to go dancing, or to have dinner at a nice place. You know, things that boyfriends do when one of them is not struggling to make ends meet. Roderick trying to explain to him that, no, he can't skip work just this once led to another argument because it's the third weekend in a row.

Roderick doesn't really know what to say anymore. He needs money for college. Hell, forget college, he needs money for rent. He gets on the bus just as his anger turns into guilt because it's not Liam's fault he's broke and, when it comes down to it, Roderick isn't exactly forthcoming about the state of his finances.

He sits just behind the kid with the book and takes out his cellphone. Apologizing is going to leave a bad taste in his mouth because he's done nothing wrong. Offering to stop by later? He won't be off work before 2am, though, and that's assuming they won't need his help with the cleaning.

Roderick is so caught up with trying to come up with the perfect answer that he nearly misses his stop.

 

It's Sunday afternoon and Gideon is feeling better. Neal and Emma just cooked him a good meal and gave him lots of leftovers to take home.

“Belle said I should,” Neal told him, though there are so many containers that Gideon thinks he's just being a good older brother. He hates cooking and can't live off of pizza alone, so he thanks them for the food and goes home. New York is not so bad and his nephew has promised to take him sightseeing next weekend.

It takes Gideon a second look to realize that the man who's just got on the bus is the guitar player. At least he thinks he is. He doesn't have his guitar with him but Gideon recognizes the thick black hair that seems barely combed.

 _Dad would flip if I brought him home_ , he thinks.

Instead of the guitar, he's wearing a t-shirt with a store logo on the front. _Drums_. Must be some sort of music store where he works.

His eyes switch to meet Gideon's.

Gideon looks down at his backpack and doesn't look up again until the other guy has left the bus.

 

It's Monday morning and Roderick hates his life. He hasn't slept in three days and asking his manager to change his schedule resulted in the chastising of a lifetime because, if he doesn't want to make an effort to keep this job, he'll just give it to somebody else. As a result, he's gone from the bar to the music shop and then back to the bar again since Saturday morning, with two or three hours of sleep in between.

 _Just don't faint until tonight,_ he thinks. _Keep it together one more day and you can sleep then._

Roderick rests his head on the window and looks to the other side of the road. That guy, the college kid he's noticed because he's always reading, looks at him from the window of the bus going in the opposite direction. Probably off to class after a good night of sleep.

Roderick thinks, _Must be nice._

Next thing he knows, he's waking up two hours later, on the other side of town and also out of a job.

 

It's Friday night again and Gideon has no plans after being to the library. He's coming back to the apartment with a bag full of books to get started on his essay on Constitutional Law. It's going to be boring and Neal will later say that Gideon is wasting his college experience on studies, but he can't help it. He's never been good at meeting new people and all his friends are back in Maine.

The bus stops for twenty seconds, during which he overhears the shouting.

“I said we'll talk about it later!”

Gideon looks through the window just in time to see the guitar player try and run for the bus, only to be held back by another man.

“We're in the middle of a fight! You can't just-”

“That's the only job I have, Liam!”

The doors close.

The bus moves on.

Gideon jumps off his seat and gets off on the next stop. He's not really sure what he's going to say once he gets there but he'll think of something.

Let him go?

Do you need help?

He's no gallivant knight, but mother always said you shouldn't sit around and do nothing if you see someone in need of help.

By the time Gideon reaches the right bus stop, the other guy is gone and the guitar player is sitting on the curb, his face in his hands.

 _Ask if everything's okay_.

Gideon opens his mouth.

The guitar player takes his case off the ground and storms off.

It's another twenty minutes until the next bus comes.

 

It's Tuesday and Liam hasn't called him back. Roderick is relieved, as sad as that is. It's only been four days but he's happier now that he doesn't have to worry about fitting another person into his busy schedule.

The college kid is already on the bus. He only looks away from the book he's reading to glance up at him. Roderick smiles as a reflex and he smiles back.

It occurs to Roderick that, without Liam, it's going to get pretty lonely. He doesn't have a lot of friends.

 

On Thursday, Gideon asks the time. He doesn't know why he does that, it's stupid. Maybe he just wants to hear the guitar player's voice. Or rather, his voice when he's not shouting at his friend or boyfriend or whoever that guy was.

He takes his cellphone off his pocket and says, “Half past six.”

Gideon nods. “Thanks.”

For the rest of the ride, he doesn't dare say anything else.

 

On Friday, Roderick almost misses the bus so he runs and stumbles and nosedives onto the floor just as the doors are closing.

The driver seems annoyed by it but the college kid looks up from the book and says, “You okay there?”

“Yeah, fine, great,” Roderick says, though his hands hurt and he struggles to get to his feet.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, just-”

Roderick opens the guitar case and sighs with relief. It's in one piece. Thank god!

The college kid is still looking at him though. Roderick tries to smile. “I bet I looked pretty stupid.”

“Not at all. You looked-”

He stops.

Roderick stares at him. “Looked what?”

“Not... stupid.”

“Ah.”

Roderick tries to smile but the college kid is already hiding behind his book.

 

It's Monday and the rain is pouring. Gideon flirted with the idea of taking the subway, but he hates being underground. By the time the guitar player comes in, the bus is packed and they're all but squished together.

“Sorry,” he says, minutes later, when the bus breaks and the guitar slams against Gideon's leg.

“It's fine.”

“Crowded, huh?”

“Yes. It's the rain.”

“Ugh, I know. It gets worse when it snows.”

“Can't wait for that.”

“Yeah, it's disgusting. Subway isn't much better.”

Gideon shook his head. “I'm not going in there. It's so-”

“That's my stop.”

“Oh. Okay. Have a good night.”

“You too,” he says, over his shoulder, but Gideon can't hear it over the rain.

 

It's Thursday and Roderick is going to be late for work if he doesn't get on a bus right now, but when it pulls to the curb, he looks through the windows and can't spot the college kid.

“I'll take the next one,” he tells the driver, and goes back to waiting.

This is stupid. Maybe he doesn't take that bus every day. Except that he does because Roderick remembers spotting him on Tuesday and Wednesday as well. Not that he was actively looking for him or anything.

The right bus comes along and the college kid actually looks at him from the window, as if – wishful thinking – he'd been ready to look for Roderick when his stop came up.

“That's not the book you were reading yesterday,” Roderick says. They hadn't said a word to each other since Monday but he'd been paying attention.

“I finished that one,” the college kid says. “Couldn't put it down.”

“You're one fast reader.”

“I am. It helps with Law School, though.”

“I bet it does.”

“You're off to work?”

“Yeah, I play at this bar- Well, I play for like an hour, most of the time I clean tables.”

“That's nice.”

They stare at each other and Roderick wishes he had something clever to say. Something that could be impressive or witty because this guys is clearly clever. Law School kind of clever. “Reads seven books a week” kind of clever.

Roderick is a waiter and plays the guitar.

He spends the next ten minutes in silence, feeling quite stupid.

 

On Friday night, Gideon keeps his heavy bag of books on the seat beside him, hoping no grandmothers will show up to force him to do the polite thing and give up the seat. His plan, though simple and rather childish, works and the guitar player is now sitting by his side.

“Damn, that looks heavy,” he says, when Gideon pulls the bag from the seat to his lap. “Law School must be harder than I thought.”

“It's a pain. But most of these are just light reading.”

“Light reading, is it? Doesn't look light to me.”

“Well, it's the weekend. I wanted to make sure I had something to do.”

The guitar player smiles at him. “People have invented alcohol and bars, you know?”

“I don't really have a lot of friends.”

There is a small, sympathetic nod, followed by a short moment of silence that leaves Gideon wondering whether he's said the wrong thing.

Then, “I play at nine. You can come watch it, if you'd like.”

Gideon does his best not to smile too wide at the invitation.

“Are you any good?” he asks, with a little tease in his voice.

“You just said you don't have friends, you can't be picky.”

Gideon laughs.

The guitar player offers his hand. “I'm Roderick.”

He shakes it. “I'm Gideon.”

 

 


End file.
